Geography and History a very quick Lesson
On a world scale the UK is a pretty small insignificant place. But it
does have a very interesting history.
When people
say Enland they don`t usually mean England they mean the whole country
of the UK or Britain. England is just one of
the 4 states.
- There are two big Islands : Great Britain and Ireland. There
used to be lots of little kingdoms then about 1500 years ago, there was
a King for the country of England and shortly after that he became king
of Wales too. About 350 years ago the Queen Of England died; she didn`t have
any children and her nearest relative was the King of Scotland. So he came
down to be king of the whole country. They 2 kingdoms formerly became one 100 years later, when the Scottish government became bancrupt due to failure of Panama Colony project.
England had had
control of Ireland for 900 years , but 100 years ago the south voted to become a separate country.
So that is why the country is called the United Kingdom Of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland
- About 450 years ago King Henry VIII couldn`t get a divorce from the Catholic
Church so he created his own Anglo Protestant Church. Because Ireland joined
the country later most of the people there were Catholic. But after a war
with France the government couldn`t pay the soldiers so it gave them land
in the north of Ireland. The Catholics in Ireland didn`t want to be governed
from England so about 100 years ago terrorism started in Ireland with the
creation of The Irish Republican Army IRA. The government gave in and had
a referendum. The Protestants were a majority in the north and voted to
stay with England so the country was divided; the south became a separate
country called Eire.
After the The 1945 war there was
still a problem in Northern Ireland, because 30 % of the population were
Catholic and they still faced a lot of discrimination; so the new Provisional
IRA was formed. The Protestants in turn formed their own terrorist groups.
The government could not give Northern Ireland to Eire because it would
face more problems from the Protestant terrorists. It sent soldiers to
keep the peace between the two groups. Over the last 30 years more than
2000 people have died due to the terrorism, but inspite of the drama created
by TV, Northern Ireland was always safer than American cities like
Washington DC . Most people care about whether they have a job or
not more than about the name of the country.
The situation is very complex,
but over time things have changed; for the last 20 years it has been illegal
to disciminate on grounds of sex, race or religion in the UK. (you can
only advertise for a barperson, not for example for a black, catholic barmaid).
So in 1998 both sides agreed to a long peace process which began with a
parliament for Northern Ireland.
There are now parliaments in Scotland
and Wales, though there is no parliament for England
The People : England is actually a country colonised by French the speaking Vikings (Normans) who enslaved the locals by imposing serfdom.
-
There was no writing before the Romans so we know nothing of the people before 40BC. The Roman referred to the ancient Britons as Celts, but they used this word also for other tribes in Central Europe there is no connection between the 2 groups. It seems a lot of the original British people moved west and the old languages of Western British Isles are referred to as Celtic languages
For England and Wales- The Romans took control of most of the England and Wales 2050 years ago, but
only for 300 years. Then the Vikings came across from Scandinavia, then
the Saxons from Germany. By 1066 there was a Saxon King of England called Harold,
but William the Conqueror came over from France and colonised England and Wales enslaving the locals by imposing serfdom. (It's ironic that here the ancestors of the Norman lords still have 50% of the wealth 944 years later.) William came from France, but was actually a French speaking Viking. He was
the first Norman king, then Plantagenets 1,2 & 3 then later came the Tudors, then when the Scottish Kings took control the Stuarts and then
the Brunswick, Hanover House (The name was changed to Windsor to seem less German). The 54 nations of most of the old colonies belong to a group
called the Commonwealth and the Queen is still head of state of many of
them.
Home of Freedom and democracy - There was an all powerful King, then lords and many serfs, but democracy started in 1215 when the King was forced to sign the contract called the Magna Carta which meant the Lords in the parliament had a say in government.
Then in 1349 the plague killed so many serfs that there was a shortage of workers so serfdom started to end, as to get enough workers the landowners had to pay workers. So they were free, but they couldn't vote. The vote was was extended to all landowners, but only extended to all men 100 yeas ago and women 60 years ago.
Super Cosmopolitan Because
the country was first invaded by so many groups of people it had a diverse
culture. Then it went out and controlled lots of other countries and brought
back lots of aspects of there cultures, some things like tea and foreign words
which enriched the English language.
- After The 1945 war a lot of immigrants came in from the
old colonies to rebuild the economy. 95% of people say that they are white,
2 million people claim to be Muslim. Most ethnic groups live in cities
like London.
.
